Improvement in roofing materials



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN NEWTON COLBY, OF MYSTIC BRIDGE, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN ROOFING MATERIALS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 147,610, dated February 17, 1874; applica'ticn filed July 22, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN NEWTON COLBY, of Mystic Bridge, county of New London, State of Connecticut, have invented an Improved Roofing, of which the following is a specification:

My improved roofing slab or tile consists of asbestus, made into sheets or plates of the proper dimensions, and saturated or impregnated with such materials in solution as will impart to the plates stiffness and rigidity, and render them Water-proof.

The sheet or plate of asbestus is made either by consolidating a mass of 'asbestus under pressure, and imparting adhesion to the fibers by any suitable cement, or else" by making thin sheets of asbestus paper in the same manner as ordinary paper, and then pressing or cementing layers of these together to make a thicker sheet.

Although various substances and compositions may be used for impregnating the asbestus sheets, I prefer to use a paint made as follows: One quart of rock-salt dissolved in one gallon of water is mixed with six quarts of slaked lime, and five quarts of the mixture added to a composition consisting of one pound of pulverized alum or borax, one-half a pound of copperas, three pounds of potash, and four pounds of sifted ashes.

This paint or mixture may be combined with posed of asbestus, made into a sheet or plate,

and impregnated or coated with a water-proof composition, as specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JOHN NEWTON COLBY.

Witnesses CHARLES E. FOSTER, EDM. F. BROWN. 

